Al Kabsa - Traditional Saudi Rice and Chicken

20

4

Recipe by: EmiratiWife2010

"This was the first Arabic dish I ever made and it turned out extremely delicious, a new favorite! Serve Al Kabsa with a fresh mixed cucumber, carrot, lettuce, and tomato salad -- preferably with a little lime vinaigrette. Some fresh pita bread on the side would be nice also. Saudis like their Kabsa with a hot sauce called 'Shattah'. Enjoy!"

Directions

Prep

40 m

Cook

1 h 30 m

Ready In

2 h 10 m

Mix together the saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, white pepper, and lime powder in a small bowl, and set the spice mix aside.

Melt the butter in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken pieces and brown them over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Mix in the tomato puree.

Stir in the canned tomatoes with their juice, the grated carrots, whole cloves, nutmeg, cumin, coriander, salt, black pepper, and the Kabsa spice mix. Cook for about 3 minutes; pour in the water, and add the chicken bouillon cube.

Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear, about 30 minutes.

Gently stir in the rice. Cover the pot and simmer until rice is tender and almost dry, about 25 minutes; add the raisins and a little more hot water, if necessary. Cover and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes or until the rice grains are separate.

Transfer the rice to a large serving platter and arrange the chicken pieces on top. Sprinkle the toasted slivered almonds over the dish.

Footnotes

Editor's Note

Whole dried limes can be found in Persian groceries or on the internet. Grind them in a spice grinder or blender to make dried lime powder.

Cook's Note

Don't rinse or soak the rice before using it. Depending on the type of rice you use, you may need to use more or less water. Stay on the low side to avoid the dish being too mushy--you can always add more.

Reviews 20

29 Ratings

Khandri

4/28/2012

I'm from Saudi Arabia, and I've eaten and prepared this dish all my life, and I must say that the steps in this recipe are very accurate. This dish is very diverse and is well-known in all gulf countries. So it's prepared in different ways with different ingredients, and this is just one way. Another delicious way of preparing it (my favorite) is by replacing chicken with small pieces (about 2-3 inch) of lamb or goat and adding about 15 to 30 minutes to the cooking time depending on the meat. These small cuts are not what you would normally find in a butcher shop, and they're typically found in Halal meat stores and Afghani or Persian stores. I personally don't use carrots, and sometimes even make it without tomato puree or tomato paste (it's actually called red Kabsa when tomatoes are used and white Kabsa when they aren't). What I'm trying to say here is, this recipe is very flexible and you can adjust it to whatever ingredients you have/like. As long as sauteed onions, a type of meat and the allspice parts are there, you can't go wrong with it.
All the spices in this recipe are sold in Middle Eastern grocery stores in North America as one blend, and even better, many online spice stores sell them. The spice blend is called Baharat, which literally translates to "spices" in Arabic.
Not every one uses saffron and often it's added to make it fancier in special occasions. To get the yellow color of saffron for a MUCH lower price, we usually use ground turmeric instead.

crystalgem

12/4/2011

I cooked this dish but did few changes because husband doesnt like chicken so i replaced it with minced meat :)) i crystalized the onions and garlic in buter and added the meat to fry; it became nice and saucy. After i followed the given steps in the recipes and instead the lime powder i added shredded lime skin the taste was soooo good. I also ommited saffron i dont use it in my cooking because it is an expensive ingredient and i don't know to use it properly. I also preboiled the rice a bit in a separate pot and instead of adding it to the meat i added the meat to the rice pot and from time to time added more legume brot to make it saucy and light to chew and swallow. Try it would come out niiiice my tab doesnt let me rate properly but its a 5* f rom me

mommymeggy

10/18/2011

I was happy to find a new Eastern recipe without curry! This dish has amazing flavor, and smells delicious while simmering. To avoid msg, I cooked the rice in chicken broth rather than using a bouillon cube/water. I ended up adding additional broth to the pot of chicken, so the mixture would end up saucier. (I enjoy the succulence that adds served over rice!) I will definitely make this again, but next time won't waste my pricey saffron in it - there are so many other spices going on, it's just not necessary, and is completely overpowered. Another thing that didn't make a lot of sense was making & adding the Kabsa spice mix separately; pouring each spice directly into the chicken pot individually, as with the nutmeg, etc. would work just as well.